Sunday, December 29, 2013

Last week, we invited a panel of ten recent Kettle Run High
School graduates for two forum sessions (one for sophomores and juniors and
another exclusively for seniors).

My eight take-aways; each followed by suggestions how we can
do a better job of aiding our current students—and parents—with the goal of preparing
them for college.

1.College costs are troublesome

Students are worried about the rising costs
of college. These, of course, are well documented, but one recent grad put it
quite succinctly, “I’m broke. But it’s no big deal; everyone in college is.”

While there’s little we can do about the
rising costs of college, we must continue to educate parents and students about
the financial burdens of college. Our counseling department offers several
great information sessions about paying for college. We can expend on these by
partnering up with our feeder elementary schools to provide parents with more
information regarding paying and saving for colleges.

2.Find the right college

All panel members spoke of the
importance of finding a college that matches not just your potential major, but
also your personality. They mentioned that each campus has its own vibe,
energy, and personality. But, they also talked about the hundreds of clubs and
activities available on each campus. One sarcastically said, “We could even
have a club for people who like playing with bendy-straws.”

None of the above is earth-shattering, but
I include it in my take-aways because I’m fortunate work in a school that does
a great job of providing numerous activities, clubs, etc. for students, but we
can do better.

3.Choosing a college ain’t easy.

This one piggy-backs on the above two.
Selecting the right college takes tremendous time and effort and doing so is a
tremendous investment. The panel offered several practical suggestions:

be sure to interview at your with the
admissions office (the interview should be as much for you as it is for them),

spend a night or two at a college that you’re
considering

visit/attend a couple of classes on your
visit

rank your priorities

don’t choose a college just because of it’s
sports teams or something else

be sure your college offers—or even better
excels at—your potential major

Our current policy only allows seniors to
receive “excused” absences (up to 3 days) for college visits. With all that
goes into selecting the right college and because college admissions offices
often offer potential applicants with valuable insights (“You need to raise your
GPA,” “We’d like to see you take a more strenuous course load,” etc.) visiting
colleges during your junior year makes sense.Additionally, we always want students to plan ahead, so why not extend
the excused absence policy to juniors?

4.Get rid of exam exemptions

Our county has an exam exemption policy for
all high school students. If a student earns an A and has less than 4 absences,
he/she doesn’t have to take his/her final exam in that class. The policy also
exempts students with B’s and 3 or fewer absences.

Every single recent graduate stated that
this policy is a disservice. “I went through 4 years of high school without
taking a final and BAM! you get to college and you have no clue how to prepare
for one.”

Another student echoed the feelings of the
group, “I understand that the policy might get us to class, but it doesn’t
prepare us for college.”

Every single member of the panel recommended
getting rid of or greatly modifying our exam exemption policy.

5.Time management skills

Time and time again, panel members alluded to
the importance of time management skills. One talked about making use of a
planner and a calendar. Another talked about the challenge of managing her free
time. A third mentioned making productive use of downtime. One student talked
about giving her friends/roommates her electronic devices so she wasn’t
distracted.

In between the two sessions, I
asked panel members how we could improve students time management skills and
they honestly stated that it is learned from experiences and not something that
can be taught. Pressing further, we determined that more project-based learning
and student involvement in a wide-variety of activities (see item 2) are
helpful.

6.AP Classes are extremely valuable

If we ever doubted, the value of our AP and
Dual Enrollment curricula, the panel quickly shot down any concerns. When
asked, “What class best prepared you for college?” While the panel’s answers
varied, each of the classes mentioned was an AP class.

We've greatly expanded our AP offerings and we must not lose sight of their value and we should make it a goal in all of our classes to better prepare students for college. In creating common assessments, we must ensure that some questions go beyond the state standards and are college-level. Additionally, all of our classes must include intense reading, writing and research.

7.Mimic college classes

The graduates, especially those at the
larger colleges, mentioned that one of the hardest transitions for them was
adjusting to the large, impersonal, lecture-only classes. While not advocating
lectures, why not turn our AP Government class (a senior, dual enrollment class
that most of seniors take) into a large lecture-based class? Obviously, the
details and semantics would need to be worked out, but it might be worth
trying.

8.Above all else, students want the skills

One of the unique challenges high school teachers
face is balancing the instructional needs of their students while instilling
discipline, time management, and responsibility. During the break between the
two sessions—and after repeatedly hearing about the importance of time
management—I asked several members of the panel, “Which is more important:
learning or being held to a deadline?”

All the students believed mastering the
necessary skills and content outweighs the importance of being firm on
deadlines. In particular, they singled out one of our AP English teachers for
her efforts. “She doesn’t let you off the hook….If you turn something in that’s
not go enough, she’ll make you do it again. I hated her at the time, but it
prepared me for college.”

Simply put, this speaks to the importance of
mastery learning and redos and retakes. It does at times conflict with the goal
of mimicking college classes, but if we truly value learning and high
standards, it’s worth it.

Other tips:

1.Find your passion in high school. The earlier
you can declare your major, the better off you’re going to be.

2.Visit as many colleges as you can.

3.Don’t limit your college choices to one type of
college or one that your friends are applying to.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

It
seems impossible that this is the day before our well-earned winter
break. I need not look far to see and feel inspired for the forthcoming
holiday. Dedicated and caring students and educators
surround me. So many of our students do so much to help those who are
less fortunate from helping at the homeless shelters to charitable
contributions to missionary trips. I know many of you also do the same.

Teaching—and
this includes our dedicated instructional assistants—is the noblest of
professions. We’re constantly giving our time, money and our hearts and
souls to our students. They really are
our children. As teachers we foster creativity, develop character, and
inspire greatness by helping each student reach his/her potential. We
shape the future through our efforts. Every day we make a difference in
the world.

I’m blessed to work in such a special place.

I wish you and your families the best holiday season and a happy New Year. See you in 2014! Reed...

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Dwight Carter, a Wittenberg University friend who is now an integral part of my PLN, gave me homework. He challenged me to share 11 random facts about myself and to answer 11 questions. Then I had to create 11 my own questions and challenge 11 other bloggers.

Nine people are
living in our house right now. Besides me: My wife, my daughter, my stepson,
two step-daughters, my stepdaughter’s daughter, fiancée, and his son.

As a freshman in
high school, I stood 5’2” (I’m now 6’4”) . I also wore glasses, had braces and
didn’t weigh more than 98 pounds.

Speaking of high
school, my high school is one of the oldest in America (founded in 1744).

As a child, I loved chocolate mousse, but I can't tell you the last time I've eaten it.

With one exception, for every job I've interviewed for I've been offered a position.

I attended two colleges (Springfield College and Wittenberg University). The first time I saw either was when I stepped foot on them for student orientation.

I've never been to a live music concert.

I've never smoked a cigarette.

I hate dancing.

I've lived in Virginia since 1994, but I don't get the UVA vs Virginia Tech debate. University of Maryland is better than both of them.

I'm such a bad singer that even my wife is embarrassed when I try to sing in church.

My Responses to Dwight's Questions

What’s the best book you’ve read in the last
year?Leverage Leadership by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo and Doug Lemov

What person in history would you want to have dinner with? Jackie Robinson

What’s the one thing you care about the most? Family

Who is your all time favorite cartoon character? By default, Bart Simpson. I
was only allowed 30 minutes of tv as a child, so I watched few cartoons.

What was your favorite extracurricular activity in high school? Basketball

Growing up, were you a nerd, jock, teacher’s pet, loner, or extravert? Yes
to all except “extravert.” Until high school, I was a definite “nerd” without
the accompanying GPA. I loved sports, but never excelled. Until my junior year
of high school, I was extremely introverted.

What’s your dream vacation? Family vacation to Costa Rica.

What’s one thing you would invent that would positively change lives? An app
for parents with all of the answers to every question, scenario and dilemma

If you weren’t an educator, what would do for a living? I’d probably be in
sports management (when I entered college, I was a sports management major).

If you were to give a TED Talk, what would be your topic? Finding your
passion

What's your one sentence? I've helped people fulfill their dreams by recognizing what they're capable of.

11 Bloggers I'm Challenging

Phil Griffins

Joe Mazza

Mike McNeff

Bill Burkhead

Travis Burns

Wade Whitehead

Kay Conners

Jared Wastler

Chris
Wooleyhand

Joe Clark

Don Miller

My 11 Questions for You

If you could
redo one thing in your life, what would it be?

What
magical/super power would you choose and why?

If your life was
turned into a movie, who would play you?

If you could be
anyone else in the world, who would it be and why?

Which do you
choose: milkshake, ice cream sundae, or ice cream cone.

What are you
most proud of?

Who most
influenced you?

Your house is on fire
and you’re family, including pets, have made it out. What is the one thing you
save?

Would you rather go 50 years into the past or go 50 years into the future?

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Inspired
by our school’s 2012 edcamp, we organized a group of teacher leaders last
spring to create our School Improvement Planning Team.

In
prior years, we offered little in terms of true professional development. Our
PD lacked focus. When it had focus, it didn’t directly relate to instructional
goals. Like many educators, despite 20 years of experience at 4 different schools, I can count one hand the number of quality
PD sessions I’ve participated in. In my third year as an administrator, I’d
done little to create quality PD within our school.

It
was time for a change!

With a dedicated group of a dozen educators who formed our School Improvement Team, we
set out to create professional development that was:

1.Teacher-led

2.Student-driven

3.Research-based

After
an initial brainstorming session, members of the School Improvement Team took
to the classrooms, hallways and break rooms, and asked their peers, “What do we
want to focus on for the 2013-2014 year?”

After
whittling down the list, we decided to narrow our focus to ensuring
instructional engagement for the entire class period (90 minutes).

We
set out to equip teachers with an arsenal of resources, something that each educator
will be able to use immediately. At the very least, we want to move our school
in a unified direction by developing a common vocabulary and clear
expectations. Ultimately, we wanted each of us to challenge ourselves to become
an even better educator.

Our Process

We
broke our faculty into 6 heterogeneous teams. Each team consists of
approximately 15 teachers from a variety of disciplines, varied expertise and,
of course, their own experiences. At least two members from the School
Improvement Team were on each committee. Administrators would rotate between
the six sessions.

With
the ever-changing monthly focus (September’s focus was on beginning and ending
class, November’s was on cooperative learning), we’ve sought volunteer teachers
to serve as facilitators for the monthly sessions. For example, for our
Cooperative Learning sessions, we sought out expert teachers volunteered to
lead this session.

Each
teacher is to take away at least one method from each of the monthly meetings
to use it in his/her classroom. We’ve developed reflection sheets for purpose.
At the beginning of each monthly meeting, teachers will be asked to reflect and
share their experiences.

5.The meetings themselves include solid instructional strategies
that teachers can implement and use in their classes

If
professional development intends to improve ALL teachers’ instruction, we must
tweak our current process. Improvements include:

1.We must develop, measurable objectives for each meeting. These
objectives must clearly define, “At the end of this session, each teacher will
be able to…”

2.Our focus must be on instructional strategies that will have the
biggest bang for their buck.PD sessions
must focus on areas that will improve student learning.

3.We must encourage further teacher reflection and projection.

4.We must make sure that our PD goes beyond simple conversations.
Talk is cheap. We must make sure it genuinely changes classroom practice.

5.Individualize and differentiate future PD.

Even
with room for improvement, our current approach to PD has produced exciting
results. The first step in achieving this success: entrusting our teachers to
develop, organize, and lead our professional development meetings.

Looking forward, our dedicated members of the School Improvement Team will continue to push the envelope to ensure our professional development is meaningful and ensures improved teaching and learning.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

During Sunday's (December 8) #iaedchat on What Matters Most in Successful Schools, moderator Jimmy Casas asked, "Should schools establish certain "non-negotiables" in terms of expectations for all staff? If so, what examples"

After the establishment of a vision statement, I can't think of anything more important to the success of a school than establishing clear expectations. Successful leaders make their expectations clear. Within their organization everyone understands the "non-negotiables."

Like all great twitter conversations, this one inspired reflection and projection, "What are my non-negotiables?"

1. Believe in every student.

2. Be positive and optimistic.

3. Be caring. Show compassion and generosity.

4. Don't accept or make excuses. Do whatever it takes.
Attitude is just as important as aptitude. 5. Establish and maintain high expectations for you and your students. "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim so high that we miss it, but in setting our aim so low that we reach it." ~Michelangelo

Do the following excite you? Getting the newest edition of Educational Leadership, reading a great blog, attending an educational conference or tweeting all night. If not, they should. Teaching requires continuous growth. Improvement cannot occur in isolation; true growth only happens when one challenges oneself.

A good educator continues to be a student. Whether it's learning from a book, a blog, or peers, never stop learning.

7. Be a team player. Nothing is done in isolation.
As Vince Lombardi said, "Individual commitment to a group effort. That's what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work."

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Watching students
walk down the hallways, students will occasionally bump into each other; most
often these minor incidents are followed with a quick but sincere, “I’m sorry.”

But when students
make tremendously hurtful comments or--even worse--when confrontation becomes
physical, they are much less likely to apologize. As a school administrator,
I’m sure the aggressor’s refusal to apologize often may be because they don’t
want to admit responsibility and be held accountable. But more often I think
it’s something greater: Admitting wrongdoing requires tremendous strength,
courage and character. The easier choice is to rationalize and frame their
actions in a different manner.

So, instead of
apologizing for a series of hurtful comments, it’s easier to say, “People joke
around like that all of the time.” “It’s not my fault she’s so sensitive,”
or “How was I supposed to know he’d react that way?”

The student who
starts a physical confrontation will rationalize his/her actions, “I had no
choice.” “It was his fault.” “She started it, I just finished it,” or “If
I didn’t hit him…”

As educators, we
cannot force students to apologize or to forgive. Both require tremendous
compassion, courage, and character. The student targeted by hurtful comments or
actions must believe that people make poor choices. A bullied student often
relives the event in his/her mind, unable to push it out of their
consciousness.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pamelaaobrien/11228885913/

Herein lies the
powerful lesson from Nelson Mandela’s life. A man that was imprisoned and
tortured for twenty-seven years has every reason to be filled with hate and
revenge. Upon his release from prison, however, Mandela called for forgiveness
and reconciliation. While doing so endured him to many on the world scene,
within South Africa his actions were not fully supported.

This year our school
has started to implement restorative justice practices. While restorative
justice never requires forgiveness, by providing students with an opportunity
to achieve a shared understanding of how everyone has been affected by the
incident often leads to forgiveness.

Through restorative
justice, we create opportunities for students to become aware of the impact of
their behavior, to take responsibility for their actions, and to make things
right. For the person being harmed, it provides the opportunity to forgive.

In restorative
conferencing, the person making the apology can no longer take the easy way
out. He/she can no longer deflect blame or place the blame on someone else. In
the traditional punitive system, the student could blame the other student
and/or the school for the punishment. Restorative conferencing requires the
person making the apology to identify the behavior for which they are
apologizing and to explain why it was wrong and how it impacted others.
Finally, he/she must commit to changing his/her behavior to ensure that it
never happens again.

As a school leader,
by reintegrating the harmer into the community as a valuable member of our
school’s society, we model the power of forgiveness. Furthermore, restorative
practices encourage accountability and responsibility—including apologizing and
forgiving—through personal reflection.

Nelson Mandela embodied the ideals of restorative justice and forgiveness. As educators, we must strive to emulate these principles.

Seven, fingers-down-the-blackboard, cringe-worthy statements that we cannot accept from any educator.

1: That’s how I’ve always done it.

The best
teachers constantly reflect on their professional practice by asking
themselves, “How can I do this better?” As education reformer John Dewey
stated, “We don’t learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.”

As
teachers, we must constantly reflect and adapt. We must harness the power of
reflection in our daily practices. Failing to reflect leaves the teacher—and
thus the students—in the dark. Oppositely, reflective teachers constantly
question their choices so they can become more effective.

2: I’ve taught it, they just don’t get it.

Highly
effective teachers create a positive atmosphere in their classrooms. Carol
Dweck categorized teachers into two categories, those with a growth mindset and
those with a fixed mindset. Those with a fixed mindset immediately and
permanently place students into preset categories with the responsibility for
meeting their unique learning challenges on the students. Those teachers with
the growth mindset viewed learning as a shared responsibility. Needless to say,
in classrooms where teachers have a growth mindset, student gains are
significantly higher with even the lowest-performing students making
significant gains.

When
students don’t get it, instead of saying, “I’ve taught it, it’s on them now,”
we must instead ask ourselves, “What do I do now to make sure they’ve learned
it?”

3: I don’t believe in redos and retakes. They’ve had their chance.

Again, I’ll
go to the seminal work of Dweck. If we teach students that their intelligence
can increase, they’ll do better in school. Failure is part of the learning
process and provides an opportunity to improve. We must teach our students to
rise to the challenge of our high expectations, to continuously learn, and we
must reward students for their sustained efforts.

4: My responsibility is to teach the content.

Before reaching our students’ minds, we must reach their hearts
and souls. Great teaching starts with building personal relationships with our
students. Each student enters our classrooms with unique needs, strengths and
differences.

Learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We must take the whole
student into account to ensure the success of each student.

We cannot ignore these differences if we want students to reach
their potential.

5: The student doesn’t have the prerequisite skills.

We must
take the time to pre-assess and teach students and prerequisite skills they
lack. Assessing and addressing student performance must occur prior to
full-blown instruction.

Doing so
requires additional and creative planning and often it requires a school-wide
effort. Whether it’s through differentiation or devoting extra time, energy or
resources, plowing ahead without ensuring students possess the prerequisite
skills is futile.

6: The student has no support outside of school.

While
impactful, we can’t use lack of support, socio-economic status, or a student’s
family situation derail what we do. We have tremendous ability to overcome
these obstacles simply by believing in our students and their abilities.
Equally important we must believe in our abilities as teachers to make a
difference.

7: I can’t be held accountable for each student.

We ARE
responsible for each student in each of our classes. It’s an incredible
responsibility, but one the best teachers embrace.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

In my early years of teaching, occasionally I divided units
up and assigned each mini-unit to a group of students who would later be
required to teach the class.My
directions were pretty simple: Your job is to present your material to your
classmates in an engaging and exciting way and to create an assignment and an
assessment to ensure they understand it. The student-led lessons usually took
up the entire 45-minute class period.

Undoubtedly, some of the presentations were great, some were
average, and some left much to be desired. But did the best student-taught
lessons equal what I was capable of?

I surely hope not.

As a teacher, I—not the students—am the curriculum and
pedagogical expert.

To teach, one must know.

We must be to translate our expertise and understanding of
the subject matter into classroom practice so that it understood by our
students. Terms like gradual release of responsibility, formative assessments, differentiation,
and check for understanding are foreign to our students. As experts, we’re able
to anticipate, diagnose and adjust our teaching to the fluid nature of our
classrooms.

This is not to say that students shouldn’t make
presentations, nor am I saying that students shouldn’t work collaboratively to
teach other.Both have tremendous value.
I’m simply saying that delegating the responsibility to students to teach an portion
of a unit should never occur.

When we delegate the responsibility of teaching to students,
we diminish our value as educators and student learning suffers.

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About Me

I'm an associate principal at Monticello High School in Charlottesville, Virginia. Before moving to Charlottesville, I was an assistant principal at Kettle Run
High School in Nokesville, VA and before that I
taught world history, freshman seminar, individual reading and academic
coaching at Fauquier High School. I also coached girls basketball and
boys lacrosse while at FHS. Additionally, I taught and coached for 6
years at Rappahannock County High School. I also spent 1 year at Cedars
Academy in Bridgeville, Delaware.

I'm a co-moderator of #vachat, a weekly Twitter conversation for
Virginia (and non-Viriginians too) educators. We chat every Monday at 8
ET.

Most importantly, I'm a father and grandfather I have 4
wonderful children and a couple of grandchildren. In my free time, I enjoy outdoor activities, cooking,
reading, sports, and, of course, spending time with family.